Which to use
“foires” and “forces” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #16,134
- “foires” frequency rank
- #921
- “forces” frequency rank
- 17055
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | foires | forces |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pluriel de foire. | Sorte de grands ciseaux dont les lames sont réunies par un arc d’acier élastique les maintenant ouvertes, et qui servaient à couper des étoffes, à les tailler, à couper des feuilles de laiton, de fer-blanc, à tondre la laine des moutons, etc. |
Where the eye mixes foires and forces
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between foires and forces
A purely visual mix-up. foires (\fwaʁ\) and forces (\fɔʁs\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 17055, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
foires is recorded at frequency rank #16,134, classified as anoun, pronounced \fwaʁ\. forces is at rank #921, tagged as anoun, pronounced \fɔʁs\.
Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.
With a confusion score of 17055, this pair ranks #385,024 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of foires vs forces
Shared letters: efors. Private to "foires": i. Private to "forces": c.
"foires" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC · "forces" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "foires" and "forces" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "foires" or "forces"?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "foires" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "forces" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #385,024 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "foires" and "forces" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "foins vs foires". Nearby pair
- Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes
Confusion rank #385,024 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.